Until recent years, most fence posts were held in position by first digging a large opening in the ground supporting surface for the fence post, filling the opening with concrete and before the concrete has an opportunity to set locating the bottom end of the fence post in the concrete.
The above process is very labor intensive and requires special working tools such as augers and the like for digging the ground out to receive the concrete base for the post.
In order to make it easier to embed the base of a fence post or any other type of ground support post, specifically designed post holders have been developed in the relatively recent past. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,149 shows a fence post holder having a bottom spike which is embedded into a ground supporting surface with a bracket fixed to the top of the spike for receiving the base of a fence post. This type of construction allows the spike to be simply hammered into the ground with the base of the fence post securing into the bracket above ground level.
A problem that occurs with respect to use of a construction as found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,149 is that the spike may not be driven in a perfectly vertical direction into the ground. As a result, the fence-post supported atop the spike extends upwardly at something other than a perfectly vertical position. This is quite noticeable, particularly for a relatively tall fence post, and adversely affects the overall construction of the fencing supported by the post.
In order to overcome the drawbacks noted immediately above, a fence post holder as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,874 has been developed. The fence post holder in the '874 patent once again comprises a lower spike portion and an upper bracket portion. However, unlike the earlier construction in the '149 patent, the bracket portion in the '874 patent is adjustable relative to the spike portion. This allows for upright positioning of the fence post even if the spike portion is not driven vertically into the ground.
In the '874 patent, the spike portion has a flat upper surface which receives a curved lower surface on the bracket portion. This connection is what allows adjustment of the bracket portion. However, because the two surfaces does not properly mate with one another, it is essentially impossible to secure them with one another in a manner which precludes undesirable deflection of the bracket portion when it is subjected to load applied to it by the fence post.